Perspectives on Mortality and War

 On April 12, 1861, the first shots of the civil war were fired as confederate forces opened up on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. It was a battle without casualties. At least, at the moment that the Union Surrendered to Confederate General Beauregard, no one had died. As the Stars and Stripes were lowered, a one-hundred-gun salute was given by the northern forces. That’s when it happened. A canon on the union side experienced an accidental discharge, and Private Danial Hough was killed – by accidental friendly fire.